Derby 101

Fun fact: trying to jam in a two minute drill is pretty effing exhausting. So is practicing knee falls on the whistle, blocking, and most everything else involved in derby. Your heart rate gets up there. If you don’t start …

So it’s your first time at a game and you want to follow what’s going on. Never fear: BDD is here for you. The Basics Boston’s flat-track roller derby is played on a flat surface inside of an oval track, …

Last time on Diary of a Redliner, we talked about cross-training– specifically strength-training– with the help of a shirtless dude. Today marks the second segment in this once-in-a-while series, in which we talk about how to make sure your appendages move in the directions they’re supposed to. Hooray for flexibility training!

At some point, every young derby player has to take off her skates. You may convince your roommates to let you practice turning toe stops in the kitchen, or your employer that you’ll be much more efficient travelling between cubicles on eight wheels, or to get your significant other to let you wear them to bed (he likes to keep his feet outside of the covers anyway! What’s it matter to him?) But no, really. You do need to take them off. You have to cross train.

For the first couple months of the red line program, after practice I would get dinner with a couple of my teammates, then go home and fall asleep promptly at 6pm. Occasionally I would try to keep myself up to a more reasonable hour (like 8pm), but I’d usually spend the time staring at food blogs in a zombie-like stupor, unable to move from the giant armchair in the corner of my bedroom. I’d sleep for roughly twelve hours, and the next day would progress as normal.

Then, inevitably, sometime mid-afternoon the day after practice, I would become overwhelmingly ravenous. As in, that-pound-tub-of-Trader-Joe’s-peanut-butter-cups-is-totally-a-single-serving-right? level of hungry.

The pattern was unmistakable.

See, a gal can get through a typical workout—a run around the reservoir or an hour of strength-training—without worrying about much besides hydration. Since I’ve never had major fitness goals beyond general improvement of strength and endurance, I’ve never had to get too complicated with my eating habits. I’d make sure I ate within a couple hours before my workout for the day, and then the next time I ate would be whenever I got hungry again.

While that method was enough to get me through an hour of working out, or even the occasional two-hour workout, it clearly wasn’t passing muster for the three-hour skate-stravaganza that was red line practice. I chatted with my coworker, a registered dietician, and then rooted around the internet to figure out what the latest information on exercise nutrition suggested, which I will now present to you, dear readers, so there isn’t a dearth of peanut butter cups because a bunch of new skaters have swarmed Trader Joe’s. (And don’t try to tell me Reese’s are the same.)

Curious about Boston roller derby? Want to know more about the TRT program? Then come meet with current league members to learn more about what it takes to become a Boston Derby Dame at Asgaard in Central Square on Sunday, …

Want to learn what roller derby’s like and meet some up-and-coming skaters? Come for a roller-derby-style workout on September 29, 11AM at Healthworks Coolidge Corner that will challenge your muscles and help you develop the teamwork skills to play roller …

Okay, so you’ve been to one or two bouts, you’ve maybe seen a rules demo, and you’ve watched skaters take a lot of left turns… but you don’t quite get what’s going on down there on the track. We’re here to fix that! Here’s some suggestions for how to get more out of watching a derby bout in ten fun and easy steps. Start at the top, and when you’re ready, move on to the next thing. Ready? Tweeeeeeeet…

Want to learn what roller derby’s like and meet some up-and-coming skaters? Come for a roller-derby-style workout on September 8, 11AM at Healthworks Coolidge Corner that will challenge your muscles and help you develop the teamwork skills to play roller …